Crock o’Shit
Crock o'Shit is a villainous ex-Birdcage prisoner, who was once a member of the Protectorate. Personality Operated in a military organization and then semi-independently in a paramilitary organization, before willingly going completely off the reservation. From there she became a crime boss and years later a prisoner who survived a fatal environment. Given the iconography she adorns herself with, and her power, she cares about the 'truth'. Under the influence of a Master power, she put herself forward to disprove a lie that had been uttered. Her time in the birdcage only gave fuel to her worst impulses and preconceptions. Has taken a liking to hurting people. Having accepted the Red Queen's deal, the formerly Fidelis's neurology was altered:Amy ventured toward the villains, but she wasn’t sure she trusted herself. She didn’t trust them, and she’d placed biological imperatives in each of them, to quiet bloodlust and regulate emotion. The last week had been her final push to get that done. - Excerpt from Interlude 16.z II the defense of Shin is foremost in her mind though not strictly obedience to her new monarch.“No extreme violence,” Amy said. “I gave you rules and biological imperatives. Follow them.” “I am,” Seir said. “Shin set their own rules and imperatives, remember? You struck your deal with them, you gave us the rules they dictated. We can do whatever’s necessary to protect Shin. Including if we think a mass murdering little shit like him might pull something.” “Dangerous, horrible little shit like him,” Ahrima said, her voice young. Rain was stone still. Amy was silent. She didn’t have nearly as much control over her rotten eggs as she liked to pretend. - Excerpt from Sundown 17.8 Appearance Crock o'Shit has tattoos beneath her eyes that stretch down to her jaw, that read from right to left 'Crock' and 'Shit'. She also has scales tattooed on her arms and neck,“You serve me now,” Goddess told the Pharmacist. “Yeah,” the Pharmacist replied. “You’ll tell me about the drugs you brought into the prison.” “Taken to the cafeteria, to be applied to the food. A berserker formula. Turning everyone he couldn’t use into ravening monsters.” “She’s lying,” a woman in the crowd said. I could see the Pharmacist tense. “It’s a power nullifying chemical,” the same woman said. She stepped forward. Words were tattooed beneath her eyes, so they traced straight lines down to her jaw. ‘Crock’ and ‘Shit’. Colorful, for words in black ink. More ink put scales at her arms and neck. “Nullifying your influence, Goddess.” “And you took some,” Goddess told the Pharmacist. "She did. And she already got some to key prisoners,” Crock o Shit said. “The maximum security ones, who get meals delivered.” - Excerpt from Gleaming 9.11 and a marine corps tattoo on her arm.“You were military,” he said, ...One of her arms was longer than the other, twisted up like a braid. The same arm that had been resting a hand on his shoulder. The tattoo with the corps motto on it was stretched out and distorted. “Marine,” she said - Excerpt from Interlude 14.z II Her pale skin makes a good contrast to her tattoos. She has teeth that have been filed to points.The woman with the tattoos of ‘Crock’ and ‘Shit’ on her face smiled, showing him teeth that had been narrowed to points. - Excerpt from Interlude 14.z II In her Changer form, Crock o'Shit is around 10 feet tall, with claws and resembles a mix between a mole rat and a wingless bat. Parts of her body are blue-green due to her tattoos being stretched out. She has hidden sets of teeth and limbs within the folds of her body.Her braided-together tangle of a body was only barely human in silhouette now. Branching, forking limbs formed a webwork between one arm and one leg, bristling with claws. The overall form was more like something between a naked mole rat and a bat without wings, with skin like callus, only resembling scale when it was pebbly and not a sheet of the stuff. The tattoos stood out and multiplied as the skin did, casting whole areas of her in blue-green. There was more to it, he saw. Folds and flaps parted as she breathed or moved one way or the other, and he saw hidden teeth or limbs, buried within. - Excerpt from Interlude 14.z II Abilities and Powers Crock o’Shit is a Changer whose form is so sensitive that it has a secondary Thinker function. When she is lied to, she can sense these lies due to the reaction she can interpret from her guts, each reaction influences her changer form. Originally her changer form was a ten feet tall ethereal woman, but it grew more grotesque over time, marinating in the falsehoods of the world. In her current monstrous form, she has large claws and thick, braided skin. She resembles a cross between a mole rat and a wingless bat. She also has hidden sets of teeth and limbs within the folds of her body. It is very combat capable, such that she rarely fights people she needs to employ tactics against.Sveta was almost at full capacity. Her ‘power’ was always on. Her focus was Nailbiter, who was much the same. As with Croc o’Shit, Sveta showed her stuff when faced with enemies who were too big and tough to take down in any normal way. I imagined they became accustomed to being too big to wrestle or crush, and let their focus and skills slip when someone like her effectively tried. - Excerpt from From Within 16.4 It has limits as any power does. Her "Thinker" power is distinctly focused on the meaning behind a statement rather than concrete wording,Yosef asked. The translator translated, “M and S protocols. What are they?” ... “I’m not sure what to say.” “He knows,” Crock o’Shit said. The Translator’s single word followed her statement. Yosef’s expression didn’t change a hair. There were lie detectors who worked through the letter of the law, and there were lie detectors who worked by the spirit of it. She was the latter. That made this harder. ... “It’s confidential,” Kamil told Yosef. “Partially true,” Crock o’Shit said. Yosef’s words were a rumble. “This doesn’t endear us to you, Armstrong,” the translator said. “It comes across as subversive, a message passed from her to you.” “If it was a message it wouldn’t be one that makes me look bad when I tell you I can’t answer.” Yosef’s gaze went to Crock o’Shit. “True,” the tattooed woman said. - Excerpt from Breaking 14.z and does not have some absolute truth she came consistently check the answer against. Thus her power cannot function as a danger sense or give precognitive feedback.“I’m in alignment,” I said. “We all are, in Breakthrough, Natalie excepted.” ... “They’re fine,” Crock o’ Shit said.. "They feel like an ambient danger,” Goddess said. “Stay where I can see you, Breakthrough.” - Excerpt from Gleaming 9.15 Further, it can be 'beaten' by exclusionary detailing; a white lie or lying by omission.Crock o’ Shit. The lie-detector. The tattoos of scales on her arms were standing out slightly in relief. “Say it again. That you’re loyal, and that I don’t need to worry about you.” “I’m loyal. You don’t need to worry about me.” Crock o’ Shit nodded. “He’s fine.” “He doesn’t feel fine,” Goddess said. ... Coalbelcher would’ve been near Natalie, if he’d been protecting her or watching out for her as part of the deal. Had he taken some candy? Had he eaten some, or did he have it saved for later? Was that why Goddess didn’t like her sense of him? I could see him being loyal but not aligned, or aligned but carrying tainted candy. More the former, since he didn’t seem the type to save something for later. - Excerpt from Gleaming 9.15 Still, she is able to gain information from a lie and give out factual information from it.Kamil pressed, trying to channel all of the enthusiasm and fervor that he’d had as a young scientist into a certain kind of energy. Irrepressible, the geek that believed everyone was as interested in his favorite subject as he was. Relentless. Yosef tried to interrupt, and he pressed on. “The textile bridge, the sharing of knowledge, security, it’s the start of something, and I’m really excited about that.” “Lie,” Crock o’Shit cut in. Kamil stopped. The smile dropped from his face. “Words backed only by desperate fear, not truth,” Crock o’Shit said. - Excerpt from Breaking 14.z She has training and a wide variety of experience from serving in the Marines as well as operating as a licensed hero in the PRT system, a successful crime lord, and surviving imprisonment in the Birdcage. History Background She triggered while serving in the marine corps, where she ran drug smuggling operation. When some of the drugs she had smuggled ended up killing people, the accumulated stress from the ensuing investigation was the reason for her trigger. Her case was swept under the rug and she left service to join the Louisiana Protectorate, as Fidelis.“I was them. I was one of the ones in charge. I shipped drugs and people back home cut it wrong and killed friends of friends of mine,” she said. “There was an investigation. I worried every second of every day that my life was ruined, until I got powers from how it tore me up inside. I was the one they would finger as the boss, the top dog. And it was all for nothing.” “Nothing?” he asked. Top dog… is that a component to why she grows? “They swept it under the rug. I turned over a new leaf,” she said, and she sneered in a way that made him unsure if she was joking or if her face was just transforming that much. Her words were less intelligible now. “But others didn’t forget or sweep it away. They blamed me for us getting caught, want money. So I dealt with ‘m.” - Excerpt from Breaking 14.z Her powers were sought after by several departments, including Watchdog.You had status as a Protectorate hero. People fought to have you on their teams. Watchdog wanted you. - Excerpt from Breaking 14.z But she had chosen to work as a semi-independent investigator in regions not covered by other departments. After two years of work, the PRT decided to move her out of the public eye, something that happens with more problematic heroes. Fidelis continued with her investigation as a vigilante.“Crock. She was Fidelis, once. Ex-marine who left the service to be a Protectorate heroine. Louisiana PRT.” ... “Before your time,” I said. “Took on a position where she’d spend six months of the year with the Lousiana team, six months going from town to town in one of the dead zones without any nearby departments. Helping police with weird and tough cases. She’d work as a lie detector, then if there was trouble she’d mutate into an eerie, beautiful, ten foot tall woman.” “I’ve seen hints of what she becomes and she isn’t beautiful and she’s barely ... a woman,” Ashley said. ... “Her lie detection’s a thinker power, technically, but in actual application it’s changer. She feels it in her gut because her gut morphs and mutates in response. About a year or two into the routine I was talking about, she gets dropped from official PRT stuff. Gets the same treatment as capes who are too vicious, ugly, or problematic to market. Essentially becomes nameless, the only reports of her are her turning into a ten foot tall woman that’s more unsettling than eerily beautiful.” ... “When she detects lies she absorbs them, or some… some of the ugliness and intent, makes them part of the changer form she carries with her. She went from being a heroine who turned into a beautiful giantess to being nameless and disfigured. She got pretty into her investigation of something big that she’d uncovered, a conspiracy, taking down a crime ring. I don’t know because I don’t think she was communicating much with her bosses then, so the paperwork is a big question mark.” ... “She took a leave of absence and dove into her investigation, and she… never surfaced, I guess. What came out the other side was a dark version of her, mean, tattooed, filed teeth, and blood on her face because she’d torn into some crime lord’s neck and the blood was still there after the mutations receded.” “That’s what I saw,” Ashley said. “It wasn’t very crocodile.” - Excerpt from Breaking 14.12 She resurfaced as the villainous cannibal by chewing through the crime lord and taking over their operations.She had gone after a crime boss as a hero, lost her heroism along the way. By the end of that particular journey, she found him, ate a third of him, starting at the genitals and ending at the throat, and then left the mangled body on the floor for the first twenty-four hours she conducted business thereafter, taking over his position. - Excerpt from Breaking 14.z Protectorate stint was, allegedly, a cover for seeking payback on her greedy criminal buddies. Crock o’Shit was arrested some years later, and send directly to the Birdcage. She lived in Black Kaze's block.She had been arrested a few years after, then went to the Birdcage, which was probably the worst place for her. Placed under Black Kaze, if he remembered right. The worst place for her. Any prisoner picked up bad traits and habits, defensiveness and a loss of faith in the system from their time inside. She was particularly vulnerable, with the way she absorbed dishonesty and ugliness, making it manifest in the form she wore. - Excerpt from Breaking 14.z Gold Morning As she was not part of the original Birdcage release she was likely taken from the prison when the goddess collected the damned. Post-Fallen fall Years later Crock o'Shit was incarcerated in another parahuman prison when Goddess attacked it, like others she was mastered to the dictator's side. Shortly though she was given drugged food that broke her from the effect and she provided an opening for Cryptid to kill Goddess.I felt it again. This time, he dropped to all fours. “Harder!” Crock o’ Shit shouted, from the sidelines. “You almost had him!” The Lady in Blue used her power again, more forcefully than before. ... Crock o’ Shit hadn’t been telling the truth. Goddess’ power hadn’t almost worked. Crock had been among the people I’d given candy to, just before I’d reunited with the group. - Excerpt from Gleaming 9.15 She accepted the rule of the Red Queen and went to Earth Shin.“Everyone! You have a choice! We are going to Earth Shin! We are going to be an authority ... There will be rules! This means submitting to my power! It will not be as Goddess’ was! You’ll follow a code of laws, you’ll maintain control and peace, and you’ll protect populations. You’ll be reasonably good! Or you can stay here. You’ll be freer, but you’ll also be a target for heroes!” ... Some prisoners were fairly quick to leave to follow. Ones who knew her from the Birdcage? With them went followers, and once a critical amount had left, a majority followed. Only the heroes really stayed. - Excerpt from Gleaming 9.15 Post-Time Bubble Pop Crock o'Shit reappeared in the Shin prison alongside Coalbelcher and Cryptid.Breaking 14.11 Where she was ordered to execute visiting Kamil Armstrong to frame Antares from Breakthrough. She was eventually stopped by Sveta.Breaking 14.z Post-Attack on Teacher She was present during The Second Shin Crisis.At Shin Station, Capricorn, Sveta, and Rain were part of a greater assembly of heroes, forming the group at the station entrance and the loose perimeter around the Mother Giant. The Shepherds who’d been stationed at the entrance had backed off, as a crowd of capes emerged. Half-and-half. Half had clothing in the Shin style, ... The other half were ours. Our most problematic. Coalbelcher, Gambol, Crock o’ Shit, La Llorona. More. - Excerpt from Sundown 17.8 Trivia *The smuggling operation of the sort that Crock o’Shit engaged in was a widespread problem for the real life United States Military, constitutional rights meant personnel could send & receive packages and mail without having it searched. This changed after 9/11 and the resulting shake-up to the United States security apparatus saw sweeping changes to the status quo.Pedersen, Dan. Topgun: An American Story. First edition. New York: Hachette Books, 2019. As 9/11 didn't happen on Earth Bet,Nine-eleven didn’t happen here. Endbringers did. - Excerpt from Migration 17.6 Crock o’Shit's activities could have happened well into the 2000s. * Fidelis means "faithful" and is usually seen in Semper Fidelis, "always faithful" the Latin motto of the United States Marine Corps. * Crock comes from crockpot: an earthenware pot in use for centuries; currently in slow-cooking. To call food a crock of shit is a vile insult. 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